[Refdb-users] GUI design?

[Bruce D'A. <bd...@fa...>]

I've raised this question in another context, but since it seems people 
are working on improved GUI clients for RefDB, I'll raise it here:

How are you guys designing the entry forms?  It seems to me there are 
two possible approaches:

1)  Just a straight representation of RIS (and in the future BibX).

2)  Introduce an abstraction, such that you have reference type 
specific field names that map onto the underling data model.

To understand the difference, say you want to enter a movie.  In the 
first, you would use a field called "author" to enter the director.  In 
the second, you'd use a field called "director."  This would be 
particularly important for things like legal citations and such.

Or a perhaps more important example: a reference that is not covered by 
existing types.  In the second example, you could set up a custom 
template to represent that, while still using the existing RIS data 
model.

The first is easier to program, the second probably more intuitive and 
flexible from a user standpoint (and is also how Endnote and other 
commercial products work).

Any thoughts on this?

Bruce